W7 general performance on older machines

[eUNIX]

Hi everyone,

I loaded one of my older machines with W7 that previously had XPpro on it and I wanted to generate some discussion on the overall performance on older machine to see how others feel about it.

I put W7 on a Dell D810 with an upgraded 7200rmp 160G HD and 2 Gig of ram. I had an easy time of porting over my older applications to the machine and only had to re-install Office 2007. I generally do not take the standard "program files" install and put each of the apps in separate folders. I was surprised that I did not have to fool much with the registry keys and everything ported nicely.

I feel that the speed in operation enhancement claims are stretched. I have two other D810s with the same configuration, one with Server 2003 and the other with XP pro and overall I feel the Server 2003 machine has the best response.

I have had a time with drivers, especially the older SCSI cards both in the expansion slot on my docking station and the PCMCIA cards that I have.

I am tempted to turn down the graphical interface but if I wanted it to look like the old stuff, then I would have left it there.

If you have upgraded an older single core machine, let me know what your experience has been!

I would rate mine as moderately sluggish but worth the time....so far.

Thanks,

Eunix

 

[clifford_cooley]

I'm not running a single core now, but I did have one before my current one. There was never any problems as far as drivers on my single core. Windows update detected the drivers and set everything up very nicely.

I had one component I have to upgrade to stop glitching while watching movies and such. My onboard graphics worked well with Windows Aero but was not stable while graphically stressed. For my config, I had a simple solution with a PCIe x16 Graphics Card.

Windows 7 in my experience ran just as well as XP. I could however see Windows 7 running poorly on a system with less than 1GB memory where as XP ran quite nicely on 512MB for the most part.

My setup at the time of Install for Windows 7 was a Celeron D(352) 3.2-MHz single core with 1GB DDR-400 memory and Radeon Xpress 200 chipset which was upgraded to Radeon HD 4350.

 

[Veedaz]

Not sure if I'm supposed to post in this thread as I'm on a Intel i7, but i will say Windows 7 leaves XP or Vista way way behind

 

[catilley1092]

On a Dell Latitude D610, I installed Windows 7 without upgrading any parts. It has 2GB RAM. It knocks XP in the dirt on a machine that was made to run XP. I did adjust the performance options for maximum, that made it look clearer and run a tab faster. The only driver problem I had was a multimedia audio controller, but I have a driver disc for the laptop, so the sound restored quickly, and sounds better than XP Pro. Everything else worked fine, surprising for a 2005 model laptop. Just don't have the Aero graphics, and it scored 1.0 on the performance scale. But the other numbers were decent for that system.

 

[eUNIX]

On a Dell Latitude D610, I installed Windows 7 without upgrading any parts. It has 2GB RAM. It knocks XP in the dirt on a machine that was made to run XP. I did adjust the performance options for maximum, that made it look clearer and run a tab faster. The only driver problem I had was a multimedia audio controller, but I have a driver disc for the laptop, so the sound restored quickly, and sounds better than XP Pro. Everything else worked fine, surprising for a 2005 model laptop. Just don't have the Aero graphics, and it scored 1.0 on the performance scale. But the other numbers were decent for that system.

Catilley, Thanks for the update on the D610. I had one for years for work and I have to say that it was a workhorse of a machine and why I bought a couple of D810s.

Here are my W7 performance numbers for the D810/2G/7200rpm disk :

Although the W7 perf rating is 3.6 and the X600 video card with WUXGA screen if very beautiful and crisp, it feels a little sluggish but a keeper!

Eunix

 

[catilley1092]

I'm actually considering installing Windows 7 on my Latitude C640. The screen looked much better than the D610 (when they were both on XP Pro). It has 1GB RAM, and if it's enough to fire up Win 2K Pro, it ought to handle Windows 7 with no problem. But I'm going to dual boot with XP if I do, as I need my printer.

 

[eUNIX]

I'm actually considering installing Windows 7 on my Latitude C640. The screen looked much better than the D610 (when they were both on XP Pro). It has 1GB RAM, and if it's enough to fire up Win 2K Pro, it ought to handle Windows 7 with no problem. But I'm going to dual boot with XP if I do, as I need my printer.

If I were you, I would not waste my time on a C640. You will find the Pentium 4 and 1 Gig memory limit a little underwhelming. That machine will better serve you with XP or 2000 if you still have a copy of that. It makes a great Ubuntu or Puppy machine also. I tested Vista on one of those when vista first came out and it was not pretty. W7 is not that much different than Vista which I still run on my multi-core machines.

I you do give it a shot, let me know how it works.

Eunix

 

[Ian]

I voted "Moderately Improved Performance - Worth It" in this case, if it was Vista then it's a hands down winner.

I have Windows 7 running on a 1.3Ghz Intel Mobile CPU + 1GB ram, and the performance seens slightly better than XP. It's certainly not any slower, that's for sure.

 

[catilley1092]

If I were you, I would not waste my time on a C640. You will find the Pentium 4 and 1 Gig memory limit a little underwhelming. That machine will better serve you with XP or 2000 if you still have a copy of that. It makes a great Ubuntu or Puppy machine also. I tested Vista on one of those when vista first came out and it was not pretty. W7 is not that much different than Vista which I still run on my multi-core machines.

I you do give it a shot, let me know how it works.

Eunix

Just got through doing the install today, a little more complicated than the D610, but I pulled it off. On only 22GB of space, dual booting with Win 2K Pro. Still have one issue, but it's working fine at the moment.

 

[eUNIX]

Just got through doing the install today, a little more complicated than the D610, but I pulled it off. On only 22GB of space, dual booting with Win 2K Pro. Still have one issue, but it's working fine at the moment.

Awesome! I am glad that you made it through it - especially the dual boot. I take it that you are using the W7 boot loader and having it load the older nt boot loader for the Win 2K pro.

I would like to hear how you managed the small system partition that W7 wants to create during the install.

Eunix

 

[clifford_cooley]

I would like to hear how you managed the small system partition that W7 wants to create during the install.

If the NTFS partition already exist Windows 7 will not create the 100MB partition. If you use Windows 7 to partition the drive, the 100MB partition will be created. You can format the pre-existing partition and install windows without creating the 100MB partition.

 

[catilley1092]

Awesome! I am glad that you made it through it - especially the dual boot. I take it that you are using the W7 boot loader and having it load the older nt boot loader for the Win 2K pro.

I would like to hear how you managed the small system partition that W7 wants to create during the install.

Eunix

Still, so far, so good. I have over 10GB of the 22GB free. But I'm not going to place a lot of programs on it. Whatever partition you mentioned apparently handled itself, as Windows 7 is running fine with no issues, except the Aero deal. I have all of that on here.

 

[catilley1092]

So far, it's managing it's own space quite well. But I've kept the extra programs very limited, installing Firefox , Adobe Reader and a couple of other apps. I've still got 10GB left. But keep in mind that I done this install to prove a point. That I could do it. Yes, I'm using the Win 7 bootloader, because if I select "Earlier Version of Windows", it goes to that familiar page. Last night, I did have some trouble getting Windows 7 to start, but finally it did. This is a 2002 model laptop and it was amazing that it is doing well as it is. My neighbor (the one who lets me use her net connection) gave me a copy of Win 7 Home Premium, her daughter bought two programs, one for her and one for her mother, but the mother doesn't want it (she's 88 years old and a diehard XP fan). I help her a lot, I was showing her all of the dust around her PC, and her copy was laying behind the PC stand with the wires. I asked her if she wanted me to install if for her (for free), and she told me to take it and make best use of it. I did, but not before cleaning her PC. There was a twisted mass of wires coated with dust and the PC was so dusty, it was a fire hazard. Not to mention that her power adaptor was plugged into an extension cord about half the thickness of the adaptor cord. I got everything right for her, and after a final time of offering to install it for her, she told me Hell No, and put it on mine. Well, it may not have been the best use of it, but I installed it as I've already said. If it breaks, I have not one cent in it.

 

[eUNIX]

Just got through doing the install today, a little more complicated than the D610, but I pulled it off. On only 22GB of space, dual booting with Win 2K Pro. Still have one issue, but it's working fine at the moment.

Hey, I would like to get an update on how your machine is working out!

eunix

 

[catilley1092]

Hey, I would like to get an update on how your machine is working out!

eunix

Still working fine, there was one issue as I mentioned, it wouldn't go into sleep mode. It was there, but grayed out. A free visit to Driver Max fixed that problem, there was a four drivers that needed updating and one missing. So for now, it's in great condition, considering it is a 8 year old laptop. Just no Aero. In fact, today I installed my broadband wireless card on it. I don't know why Microsoft discouraged users from doing installs on older systems. Of course, it would not function at 100% of its potential. But they could have offered a "lite" version for the older ones. It's lightweight as can be, it fires up fast on the laptop that we're discussing. I noticed you're running a 3.6 rating on a not too old Latitude yourself. That's better than the 2.9 on this HP that was just removed from the box in November. And my 2.9 is in the same category as your 3.6. I tell you eunix, those Latitudes are the best laptops that money can buy, as far as overall quality and reliability. Business people covet them. There are still D610's going for $275 to $400 today. And you can buy a brand new Compaq and once in a while, an HP for that. But you know what? You buy those elcheapo laptops, you'll never get 6 to 8 years out of them. I'm sure they'll run good for a while, but come 4 to 5 years, they''ll be hitting the trash can. If I were to buy another laptop today, it would be a new Latitude.

 

[eUNIX]

If you notice the 3.6 rating is based on the "Calculations Per Second" which is processor. The rating is helped out by the video card which is a X600 which was the high end for this version of the D810. The other item is that I upgraded the hard drive a few years back to a 7200 rpm 100G. What I have seen on other older machines that are consumer class, is that the video is a drag bringing the performance index down.

 

[eUNIX]

Ok Catilley, I went and borrowed an old C640 from a friend for a few weeks just to see what you are seeing. I put W7 Ultimate on it and tured AERO off.

In my opinion, the machine is barely tolerable. I had to download Chrome as the web browser which is more responsive than Firefox right about now.

I am going to let my kids use if for a week or so and get their feedback. I know that they sometime go out to the kids game sites and educational tool that have Flash based games on them. I do know that there seems to be an issue with Flash's performance on W7. I expect them to come complaining in a few days.

To make it interesting, I also build out an AMD Athlon 64 machine with Ubuntu and and old Gateway Solo 9550 ( PIII) with Puppy Linux to see which one they will fight over. I will keep you posted.

Eunix

 

[catilley1092]

Ok Catilley, I went and borrowed an old C640 from a friend for a few weeks just to see what you are seeing. I put W7 Ultimate on it and tured AERO off.

In my opinion, the machine is barely tolerable. I had to download Chrome as the web browser which is more responsive than Firefox right about now.

I am going to let my kids use if for a week or so and get their feedback. I know that they sometime go out to the kids game sites and educational tool that have Flash based games on them. I do know that there seems to be an issue with Flash's performance on W7. I expect them to come complaining in a few days.

To make it interesting, I also build out an AMD Athlon 64 machine with Ubuntu and and old Gateway Solo 9550 ( PIII) with Puppy Linux to see which one they will fight over. I will keep you posted.

Eunix

Eunix, you can't expect this laptop to perform as your newer one does. Also, there were two configurations for this laptop. One of them is a Pentium 3 processor with 256MB RAM and a 20GB hard drive. The other (mine) is a Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM and a 40GB hard drive. I'm only telling you my experience regarding the install and performance. It dual boots with Win 2K Pro with no problem. And Firefox is the default browser for both OS's. As far as Windows 7 goes, it looks better than the install on my D610. But the D610 is faster, having 2GB RAM. The C640 can be slower, but it has been a reliable machine for me. It could be in the performance settings, I don't know. I took a picture of the home screen, but could not get it to upload to you. I had this same problem when I wanted to show a picture of my workstation. By the way, you may want to make a free visit to Driver Max, I know firsthand that some drivers needs updating. I did in an above post mention that, you may have missed it. There's five or six outdated drivers on there. I did also say that the install was a little more complicated than the D610. That was the reason, updating drivers. It took a bit of searching just to find a free site. Eunix, you seem to be a fairly intelligent person, you've been around computers for a while. You just don't throw in the Windows 7 install disc, boot and install, and off to the races on a 8 year old laptop. It took me 10 to 12 hours to get it right. But it's still going good, and if it breaks, I'll let you know.